Private individual- how do you avoid VAT on a used van?!

Private individual- how do you avoid VAT on a used van?!

Author
Discussion

WildCards

4,061 posts

217 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
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They do sometimes come up for sale with no VAT, best bet would be to keep an eye out for one of those.

Truckosaurus

11,290 posts

284 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
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the only way is to find a van that someone has already paid the VAT on, the most likely candidate is going to be VW, but then they are more expensive to start with.

Chris_w666

22,655 posts

199 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
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Find one in a private sale or buy from a non VAT registered business that has already paid the VAT when buying new.

Jgtv

2,125 posts

197 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
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Only way is to buy from someone who is not vat registered. VAT is almost certainly going to be charged from a dealer.

If your not registered yourself, in a trade and its an expensive van it might be worth looking into registering, but also consider that if its a works van the total price you pay not being VAT registered is applicable for Annual Investment Allowances, so its swings and roundabouts really as you should make your money back in someway from the tax man.

gizlaroc

17,251 posts

224 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
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You only pay VAT on the difference between buy in price and selling price, on a used vehicle anyway.


Sof if the garage bought it for £15000, they then spend £1000 prepping it, and then sell it for £18000 they have to pay the VAT on the £2000 profit.

So out of that £18000 sale of £298 is VAT.

Chris_w666

22,655 posts

199 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
quotequote all
gizlaroc said:
You only pay VAT on the difference between buy in price and selling price, on a used vehicle anyway.


Sof if the garage bought it for £15000, they then spend £1000 prepping it, and then sell it for £18000 they have to pay the VAT on the £2000 profit.

So out of that £18000 sale of £298 is VAT.
On a commercial vehicle dealers usually charge VAT as an extra on top of the total selling price.

t955daytona

307 posts

183 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
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Chris_w666 said:
gizlaroc said:
You only pay VAT on the difference between buy in price and selling price, on a used vehicle anyway.


Sof if the garage bought it for £15000, they then spend £1000 prepping it, and then sell it for £18000 they have to pay the VAT on the £2000 profit.

So out of that £18000 sale of £298 is VAT.
On a commercial vehicle dealers usually charge VAT as an extra on top of the total selling price.
Correct, VAT on commercial vehicles is very different from VAT on used car margins, VAT is on the full selling price of commercials at 17.5% The best way round it is like already stated, buy privately off someone who was not VAT registered and whom payed full VAT on the initial purchase.

WildCards

4,061 posts

217 months

Tuesday 18th May 2010
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hora said:
WildCards said:
They do sometimes come up for sale with no VAT, best bet would be to keep an eye out for one of those.
From traders/dealers?
Small dealers, one man bands i've seen them sell with 'no vat'. I've never noticed it with the bugger guys though.

Steve_F

860 posts

194 months

Wednesday 19th May 2010
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Really?????? A Hi-Ace?????

That's the van that finally put me off vans and back to estates for transporting the bike(s) around and I'm glad I did.

It was a pre-facelift (04 at a guess) one I drove and it was the worst out of the bunch I tried. Dreadfully slow, ancient technology and engine and just horrible to drive. It did actually seem to be one of the more reliable ones to be fair.

Did like the upward's opening rear door though as it'd double as a shelter if it's raining!

Some of the bigger dealers will also have vans in with no VAT if it's come from a private user in the past but they seemed to be few and far betweem.

Fane

1,309 posts

200 months

Wednesday 19th May 2010
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It doesn't matter if the dealer is small, medium or large. If the dealer purchased the van from someone who is not VAT registered, then the van is treated as a margin vehicle (ie no vat to be added) and the dealer will pay VAT on the profit he makes. They do come up for sale every now and again - just keep your eyes peeled.

However! I would recommend throwing away those VAT blinkers! Vans which do not have VAT on them command a small premium over those which do have VAT on them, as they are deemed to be more desirable by non-VAT registered users.

When you come to part exchange a vehicle which you will not have been able to reclaim the VAT on, because there will be no VAT on it, it will again command a premium.

I hope that makes sense!